


What Money Can Buy

by Twisted_Magic



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: Character Study, Drunkenness, F/M, Introspection, Money, Movie 1: Batman Begins (2005), POV Bruce Wayne, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:34:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26248753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twisted_Magic/pseuds/Twisted_Magic
Summary: Bruce knows his fortune can’t buy him the one thing that would actually bring him true and complete comfort (his parents back), so fancy cars, reservations anywhere, and free rein to do whatever he wants are just meaningless comforts anyways.~Throughout the events of Batman Begins, Bruce contemplates what good his money can do.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Kudos: 5





	What Money Can Buy

**Author's Note:**

> Random late night writing inspiration strikes again! I hope you enjoy reading!

Bruce Wayne buys a hotel.

He’s drunk, and with two beautiful women, and he buys the hotel they’re dining at with a casual wave of his hand, a few clicks on his phone, and a few papers promptly signed with barely recognizable scribbles. 

Bruce says that he does it so the ladies can swim in the decorative pool of water without reprimand, but once he’s done it––really, it’s amazing how quickly one can buy a whole building when one is a billionaire––he realizes that’s not really the case. The other dazzlingly rich restaurant goers see it as an impressive show of wealth, a way for the Prince of Gotham to flaunt his fortune just to remind Gotham that he is, in fact, still alive after his seven year absence. Bruce knows that’s what they’re thinking when their eyes glint with greed from the flash of Bruce’s expensive pen gliding across the paper. But Bruce knows that’s not why he did it either.

Bruce wants to test just what money can buy.

He grew up around wealth, bathing in it and sleeping on it and eating it for breakfast at the gleaming dark wood dining table. He knows it can buy comfort, but after watching his parents spend a lifetime throwing their money at Gotham’s problems, and now seeing Gotham still have the same crime statistics and the same funnel of money to the already filthily rich, Bruce has to wonder: can his family’s money even _do_ anything? Or does it just buy him a smidgen more comfort on top of the endless cushiony pile of comfort he’s been on for all the years he’s lived at Wayne Manor?

Bruce knows his fortune can’t buy him the one thing that would actually bring him true and complete comfort (his parents back), so fancy cars, reservations anywhere, and free rein to do whatever he wants are just meaningless comforts anyways.

Bruce is at least happy to see the two ladies gasp and grin in amazement at the news that they get to splash around in the water for a little while longer. Being Gotham’s richest bachelor certainly has some perks. After he’s gotten into the no longer decorative pool and he’s floating slightly in the water alongside his dates, however, Bruce realizes that he feels lighter not just due to his buoyancy in the water, but also due to the (admittedly small) amount that was taken off the massive mound that is his bank account. He doesn’t need the money, it makes others like these ladies happy, so why the hell should he not spend it frivolously to make the people around him happy?

Bruce stumbles out of the hotel with the women, sopping wet and feeling happy for the first time in too long. He stops short, however, when he sees Rachel.

Bruce is unprepared to see her. His first instinct is to impress her, to make her look at him with a playful and admiring smile not unlike the smiles his dates gave him when they heard about his purchase. Bruce tells Rachel as well that he bought the hotel.

Rachel is not impressed. She smiles briefly at him, but it is not playful, or admiring; far from it. Bruce can see in her eyes that she is taking this seriously. 

Rachel is disappointed in him.

Bruce wants to yell. What is it that he’s supposed to _do_ with his money? Isn’t it better to give it away to make others happy, rather than just hoarding it for himself? Bruce wants to show Rachel the stats from Wayne Enterprises of all the funding he gives for helping to improve the city, and to show her his own private research that the economy of this city just trickles back upwards rather than down to the people that actually need money. Bruce wants to tell Rachel that he’s fighting a losing battle against the corrupt people that live in penthouses and linger in crime rings. Maybe he’ll be fighting it forever, just like his parents did, and what did it get them? A silk suit stained with blood, a pearl necklace on the pavement, and death brought about by the very thing they were trying to fix with their money. The two of them literally spent their lives on Gotham.

Bruce doesn’t say any of that to her.

That look of disappointment stays with him, though.

Bruce buys things for himself––structural and electrical materials for the cave, _20,000_ masks––but it’s also for the city. Bruce might be spending his money on things that he’ll be owning and utilizing, but Gotham is receiving the benefits. Batman begins an actual physical fight against the corruption living in the nooks and crannies and skyscrapers of Gotham. There’s no possible way for his millions to slip their way into the hands of greedy city administrators, politicians, and crime lords if there’s no middleman. Bruce’s money is funding Batman, the vigilante that is directly pulling the corruption up by the roots.

It turns out, though, that Batman is not enough on his own. Bruce feels reassured when he sees Rachel stare at Batman in wonderment and gratitude when he gives her help against Falcone, but Rachel still doesn’t look at _him_ , Bruce Wayne, that way. Rachel has always been the epitome of justice and all that’s morally good, so if she still looks at Bruce like he’s doing something wrong, then it’s likely that he is.

After Bruce saves Gotham from the League of Shadows––another piece of evil seeking to sink its claws into Gotham, but with the objective of crushing the city in its grasp rather than simply squeezing it dry of its money and power––Bruce steps up to the plate as Bruce Wayne. He realizes he hates being seen as a mere socialite, a _playboy_ ; while that public image was useful for awhile as a way to distract people from his antics as Batman, he hates casually spending his money to the amusement of others––he has to remember to sell that hotel back––and he hates even more being seen as the party-loving billionaire in the face of his parents’ legacy.

While Bruce can never buy their lives back, he can still pay to keep that legacy alive. Through that, hopefully, Bruce can find some semblance of true happiness knowing that he’s doing the right thing and that––on a lesser but still important note––his parents would be proud of him if they could see him now.

Bruce filters some of his slowly draining bank account into Wayne Enterprises, to fill the faults in it’s administration and direct it down the way it needs to go. Bruce needs to keep fighting from both ends to save Gotham, from the lowest backstreets as Batman to the highest skyscrapers as Bruce Wayne. Even if he only gets incrementally further than his parents did, he knows he is at least making progress now. Every war is, after all, won with both physical and technological strength on the battlefield _and_ wealth spent from the comfort of offices. Bruce Wayne, the Batman, is going to save Gotham, even if it means spending every last cent of a fortune that has always meant nothing to him but everything to Gotham.


End file.
